#MusBadges

The topic of the month at Culture Themes is museum badges, something that we are very lucky to have in abundance! We hold badges, brooches, pins and tokens from the French Revolution right up our own very fabulous PHM badges.

On a recent trip to our stores, I took a few images of a selection of badges I thought were topical/ interesting/ amusing! Some badges still have a certain resonance with issues and problems very relevant to contemporary society.

With the NHS very much in the headlines this week, this badge illustrates that it has been under fire before, and some groups have been keen to defend it. 

Our recent blog post looked at the NUT March in Manchester at the end of June this year, this badge shows that similar problems still face schools today as they did in the 1980s. 

The popular campaign for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison gathered pace in 1988 – the year of his 70th birthday – under the slogan ‘Free Nelson Mandela’.

The late 1970s saw Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League fight racism and all kinds of oppression. The ANL looked to appeal to as many different people as possible such as football fans, students, skateboarders and vegetarians- as this badge illustrates! Patrons of a pub in Rusholme, Manchester, even set up their own group, ‘The Albert Against the Nazis’, with a badge and banner.

The 1980s resurgent anti-nuclear movement took this sentiment and used humour to appeal to an even greater number of people. Cat Lovers against the Bomb represents a number of such CND badges, including ‘Morris Dancers against the Bomb’, and ‘Gardeners for a Nuclear Free Fuchsia!’

These badges certainly point out the fact that there have ‘always been ideas worth fighting for’. What badge would you wear with pride? Have you got any images or memories of badges you have worn in the past? If you are sadly badge-less you can come and make one on our badge maker in Main Gallery Two!

There have always been handbags worth fighting for…

At the PHM we believe that there have always been ideas worth fighting for.  Through our collections and stories we express the passion, euphoria and despair that comes with standing up for what you believe in.  Some of these ideas divide opinion, others are now universally accepted.  Many people have sacrificed their lives for their ideals.

As part of my research for Play Your Part I have kept a search on Twitter for the keywords ‘protest’ and ‘democracy’.  These feeds have recently been dominated by news and opinions of events in Egypt, Wendy Davis’ filibuster in Texas and, strangely, a planned protest against Taylor Swift by the controversial Westboro Baptist Church.  I’ve come across some interesting links, controversial opinions and inspiring videos.  Then I saw this.  Apparently Roberto Cavalli believe that handbags are worth fighting for.  Or scarves.  It’s quite hard to tell.  Hilariously described by one youtube commenter as ‘Arab Spring meets Zoolander’, beautiful yet vacant models ‘protest’ for some unspecified cause.

Compare the video to this photograph in our collection.  The passion in the eyes of the protestors is strikingly missing in the Cavalli ad.

However, it did get me thinking about the often complicated relationship between protest and fashion.  Designers have been inspired by protest movements, and there have been many high profile protests against the fashion world (anti-fur demos, protests against the use of sweatshops, tax avoidance, size zero models…).  But what is really interesting is how protestors have used clothing, accessories and their bodies to make their point.  How has protest ‘fashion’, for want of a better word, changed through the ages?

As someone that can’t resist the perfect pair of shoes, I can’t pass up an excuse to delve into our collections to explore…

The Suffragettes

The Suffragettes knew a thing or two about accessorising!  And colour schemes!  Their iconic purple, white and green represent dignity, purity, and hope. We have some lovely examples of sashes and badges in our collection, but this is one of my favourite examples of suffragette accessorising (and who can resist a picture of a cat!).

 

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

We have a vast collection of photographs of anti-nuclear protests over the decades (you can come and see for yourself at our Snapshot on the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament event on 5 August), but this one stood out for me for the most creative use of knitwear I’ve ever seen.

 

Dressing up

Guess the year of this photo?  Victorian protest perhaps?  No, it’s a couple delivering a petition on adult education in 1980!  Reminds me of the fantastic use of dressing up in the campaign for women on banknotes last week.

Do you have a favourite protest outfit?  Can clothes help make a point?  ARE handbags worth fighting for?

Let us know!